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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24386176">The Despair of it All</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account'>orphan_account</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Super Dangan Ronpa 2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Body Horror, Despair Disease (Dangan Ronpa), Despair Soda Kazuichi, Fevers, Gen, Implied/Referenced Self-Amputation, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Mild Blood, Not Canon Compliant, Remnant of Despair Soda Kazuichi, Remnants of Despair (Dangan Ronpa), Sickfic, a sickfic but not a cute one</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 02:20:19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,700</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24386176</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong. No one on the island could find Kazuichi, anywhere. Due to his, uh- bright, appearance, he was usually easy to find. The guy dressed like a pack of highlighters, it couldn’t be that hard, right?</p>
<p>Or, Kazuichi gets the Despair Disease.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Enoshima Junko/Soda Kazuichi (one sided), implied one sided Kazuichi Soda/Kamukura Izuru if you squint</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>146</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Despair of it All</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>i just wanted 2 write remnant/despair disease kazuichi so here ya go lol. this is just 2.7k words of self indulgence</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong. No one on the island could find Kazuichi, anywhere. Due to his, uh- bright, appearance, he was usually easy to find. The guy dressed like a pack of highlighters, it couldn’t be that hard, right?</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Wrong. Everyone was scouring the islands with no luck. They had agreed to meet at the restaurant at noon to report what they had found, hopefully with Kazuichi in tow and without a body discovery announcement. What they had not expected was showing back up at the restaurant with no new information.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Hajime sighed, leaning back in his chair. As the day went on, he was getting more and more worried about his Soul Friend, as Kazuichi had dubbed them to be. There had been no sightings of him, no body discovery announcement, no trail of footprints. He sighed again and stood, getting the attention of this group.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“We have to find him before sundown. The longer we go without finding him-” Hajime originally intended to keep speaking, but he cut himself off sharply when he felt something fall on to his head. Reaching up, he tore a hand through his hair. It came back pink. Pink, like blood. Kazuichi’s blood. Horror evident on his face, Hajime looked up to the source of the blood.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Another drop fell, landing on Hajime’s cheek. <em> Fresh, </em>he noted, hoping he wouldn’t have to use it during a class trial. The patch of pink was growing steadily on the roof tile, the frequency of the droplets growing with it. Hajime could’ve sworn he heard someone curse and mutter something. His heart fluttered. If he wasn’t just hearing things, that meant Kazuichi was still alive.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>When Hajime reached up to push the roof tile away, balanced precariously on a chair, his hand was stopped. By another hand. It reached out to grab his wrist, keeping it firmly in place. One of the first things Hajime noticed was the amount of blood on the hand. God, there was so much. There wasn’t an obvious source on the hand, which was only slightly comforting because he had no idea whose blood it was in the first place.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The tile had shifted only enough to let the hand through, but another hand poked through to push it all the way over. The hand retracted, but it was soon replaced by a head. Kazuichi’s head.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Relief instantly coursed through Hajime. Kazuichi wasn’t dead. He was, however, staring at Hajime with cold, lifeless eyes. (Someone screamed. He wasn’t sure who it was. Probably him.)<br/><br/>Almost instantly, Kazuichi’s eyes lit up with a warm recognition. “Kamakura!” He giggled, leaning forward and ignoring the fact that he was hanging upside down out of the ceiling. “You got a haircut.” He mused, reaching out to touch the hair before freezing. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>The cold look in Kazuichi’s eyes was back. He pulled back his hand, almost as if he had been burned. “You’re not Kamakura.” Suddenly, he was leaning forward with a new curiosity. A hand gripped the top of his head and forced him to look whichever way Kazuichi desired. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>“You’re not Kamakura, but you have his face. Weird. Is this some face transplant thing? Sounds fun. Not-Kamakura, switch faces with me!” Kazuichi poked around at the sides of his face, presumably looking for a scar or something of the sort. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Hajime backed off, batting Kazuichi’s hand away with a look of irritation on his face. “Kazuichi, where have you been? What are you doing in the roof?” Other members of the class voiced their small quips of agreement and worry.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Kazuichi’s response left the room quiet enough for a pin to drop. The only sounds were the constant <em> drip-drip-drip </em>of Kazuichi’s blood, something that would definitely need to be addressed. “I’m building a bomb!” His cheerfulness was off-putting in the atmosphere of the room. He had an almost childish smile as he looked around excitedly. “Of course, it’s strong enough to demolish this whole building, and by extent everyone in it, but it isn’t quite ready yet. I want to make sure it has a chance to fail before I finish.” He was definitely rambling now, and no one had any idea what he was talking about.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“The despair of failure is my favorite! I’m already used to it, though.” Kazuichi had the audacity to laugh, ignoring how no one else was laughing. “I’m used to my projects failing. That’s how I lost my arm!” He looked at his own hand like he was examining it. “I’m not sure how I woke up and had it back, though. Am I dreaming? Maybe I should cut it off again so I can build a better one!” He seemed to brighten at the concept. “I need to build better machines. Junko says that’s all I’m useful for!” </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Hajime looked around, only to find that everyone else was as confused as him. Fuyuhiko had a look of vague horror, Akane couldn’t decide if she should laugh or be scared, Mikan looked like she was going to cry, Hiyoko was obviously disgusted, and Ibuki, strangely enough, was the only one without a clear emotion on her face.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Kazuichi noticed this lull in the one-sided conversation. “Hey, come on!” He whined, swinging back and forth, giggling to himself. “When should I cut off my arm? I should, right? I need to build one first…” He began muttering to himself for a moment before brightening. “Or maybe I don’t! I can wait to start building it until after I’ve cut my arm off, and I can do my best with one hand!” He went to retreat back into the ceiling, but Hajime managed to stop him just in time.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Are you not going to explain anything?” That came out a bit harsher than Hajime wanted it to, but it was fine. It seemed to be the only thing getting through to Kazuichi right about now. “You’re acting weird. You weren’t like this yesterday. What’s all of this about despair and Junko and cutting your arm off?”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Listen, Not-Kamakura, the last thing I remember was going to sleep after killing some Future Foundation kids with a smile on my face, and then I wake up here. On a random island, with a headache and a fever, and my arm back.” Okay, that was a lot to unpack. Strangely enough, it was Mikan that spoke up first.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“F-fever? That might have something to do with why he’s… like this…” She lost her confidence when she noticed everyone looking at her. Kazuichi scoffed, and went to continue speaking, but stopped when he noticed the sudden appearance of Monokuma. Everyone followed his gaze down to the dual-colored bear.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“That’s exactly it! Brownie points to Mikan!” Monokuma cheered, gaining a round of applause from absolutely no one. “This is your newest motive!” Everyone - minus Kazuichi for obvious reasons - froze up at that. A motive, so soon after the second trial? Fuyuhiko swore under his breath and looked down at the ground. The silence was broken by, guess who…</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“God, you’re still as annoying as Junko programmed you to be.” Kazuichi was picking at his nails, looking almost bored. “I’m going back to my bomb.” He made to pull his hand away from Hajime’s grip, but didn’t expect as much resistance as he got. This resulted in him losing grip on whatever was keeping him suspended upside down and falling through the roof on to the table.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Kazuichi landed on his back with a groan, seemingly ignoring the people around him. He landed on plates and glasses, also ignoring the crunching of broken glass as he struggled to sit up. However, Hajime’s eyes were elsewhere.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The source of the blood from earlier was immediately made clear. The left leg of his jumpsuit had a hole burned into it, where you could easily see a large gash in his upper thigh. Whatever made it was still unclear. However, an odor of burning flesh seemed to follow Kazuichi down, giving Hajime a sick idea of what happened. Kazuichi didn’t seem bothered by it, almost as if he was used to the pain he felt. The greenish-yellow fabric had turned a dark brown, letting all of them know just how much blood had been spilled. Monokuma continued speaking, oblivious to those around him as usual.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“This new motive is called the Despair Disease! A highly contagious virus that has different effects on everyone who catches it!” Monokuma hopped up onto the table next to Kazuichi, ignoring the muttered insults from the boy. “Kazuichi here is one of the first three recipients of it! He has the uhh… um… I didn’t think to name it for him, I wasn’t planning on him catching it at all!” Monokuma fidgeted a little, rubbing his grubby mechanical paws together. “I guess, for now we’ll call it the Remnant Disease!”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Fuyuhiko stepped forward indignantly. “And what the hell is that supposed to mean? Remnant? Remnant of what?” He held his hands out in front of him, almost as if he was expecting a physical answer.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Despair, of course!” Monokuma supplied, cheerful as ever. Kazuichi perked up at the word, looking over at the bear. He didn’t react to the glass embedded in his palms or the way his cut began to ooze blood when he moved. “This here version of Kazuichi is infatuated with despair! In love! Addicted! He’ll do anything to feel it! Kill his parents, check! Kill his old friends, check! Mutilate his own body, check! Like I said, kids, anything!” Monokuma made wide sweeping gestures as he spoke, to play up the grandeur of his words. Kazuichi seemed lost in thought. Was he perhaps recalling doing the things Monokuma had mentioned? Before Hajime could think about it any more, Monokuma continued speaking. “The best part? This is how he was before you kids came to this island!”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>There was a beat of silence. And then, absolute hell broke out. Protests flew out from around the room. They ranged from, “The Kazuichi I know isn’t like that!” to, “How are we supposed to believe you?” Monokuma didn’t pay them any mind.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“There’s no reason you shouldn’t believe me!” Monokuma’s expression darkened. It didn’t make sense as to how he did it, but… Eh. “I haven’t lied to you guys before, have I? What kind of teacher would I be if that was the case? Oh, one more thing before I go.” Monokuma swiveled around to look at Ibuki and Gundham, the two that were the most out-of-character aside from Kazuichi.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“You guys have the Despair Disease too!” Ibuki didn’t react, but an expression of silent panic fell across Gundham’s face. “Miss Ibuki here has the Emotionless Disease, and Gundham has the Silence Disease!” Gundham’s hands flew in an attempt to find a wordless way to ask his question, and Ibuki, again, didn’t react.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Wait, wait, hold on,” Hajime said, commanding a silence over the room. He looked directly at Monokuma before speaking. “You said this is how Kazuichi was before we got to Jabberwock Island. Does this have anything to do with the missing memories you told us about?” Monokuma gave a smug laugh.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Do birds fly, kid? I’ll let you all figure out the rest!” Monokuma spoke behind his hand toward the surveillance camera in the corner of the room. And then, in a puff of smoke, he was gone.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>No one noticed Kazuichi walking to the door until he stumbled and let out a gasp of pain. He was sent falling to the floor, struggling to get up and put weight on his injured leg. Mikan and Nekomaru rushed to his side, reaching to help him stand. Oddly enough, Kazuichi swatted away their hands as if they were nothing more than flies.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“I don’t need your damn help!” He snapped at Mikan, nearly sending the poor girl into tears. Gritting his teeth, Kazuichi stood on shaky legs. Taking one step had him back on the floor in seconds. This time, he was unconscious. After confirming that fact, Mikan took charge of the situation. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Nekomaru, I need you to carry Kazuichi to the hospital on the third island. Ibuki, Gundham, you two need to come too. Monokuma said the disease was heavily contagious, so you need to avoid touching anyone.” Mikan spoke with an air of confidence now that she was in her element. She pointed Nekomaru to the door, waving Ibuki and Gundham along behind him. She turned to face everyone in the room. “Now, anyone who has touched them is at risk of infection, so I propose a quarantine to limit the spread of the Despair Disease.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Hajime immediately cringed and thought of Kazuichi gripping his face, looking over it with sharp eyes. Yikes. Sonia and Hiyoko stepped forward, both claiming they’d touched one of the infected that day. Mikan looked over the trio, ushering them out the door as well. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>“You guys come to the hospital too. While we aren’t sure if you’re sick or not, you could be a symptomless carrier, which is a risk against anyone who doesn’t have it.” Mikan pushed them out of the restaurant door, following not far behind. The protests of the others seemed to have little weight to her, because she didn’t slow down or hesitate at all.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Erm, Mikan?” Hajime asked, looking down at the small girl next to him. “Do you think you’ll be able to handle them on your own? I mean, given that Monokuma said this was a motive, he probably won’t let us have a cure until someone…” Gets murdered, Hajime left unsaid. The others picked up on the implications, leaving a sour atmosphere over the group.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>They made their way to the hospital in silence, which was involuntary on Gundham’s part. Mikan only spoke to give them directions and wave over Nekomaru, who was carrying a still unconscious Kazuichi over his shoulder. After a blur of events, all three of the infected patients were in robes and their own rooms. Mikan tended to each one individually after denying Nekomaru and Sonia’s help.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>After getting them all to lay down with minimal resistance, Hajime was in the main room of the hospital. It hadn’t been that hard. One of them couldn’t talk and was otherwise fine, one of them didn’t care about anything, and one of them was still unconscious, probably. The door leading to the hallway was propped open in case of something Hajime didn’t want to think about. Hajime looked down, playing with his hands and thinking.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><em> Kazuichi… were you really like that before coming to this island? Were you the only one? What made you like that? Who’s Junko? What did you mean about losing your arm? </em>Questions whirled around in his head, each of them going without an answer for the time being. He felt horrible that he couldn’t help out more, but Mikan herself was the one who shooed him out of the room whenever he tried to do something. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Speaking of rooms, Ibuki was in the first room, Gundham in the second, and Kazuichi in the third. Hajime watched Mikan dip out of Gundham’s room and lean against the wall for a moment. She looked absolutely exhausted. Hajime couldn’t help but feel bad for her as she sighed and walked into Kazuichi’s room. No doubt she had saved him for last on purpose.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Turning away to look at the bulletin board for just a moment, Hajime was broken out of his thoughts with a shrill scream. <em> Mikan, </em>he realized. He ran out into the hallway to see the girl slumped in the doorway, a hand clapped over her mouth in terror.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Nekomaru and Hiyoko were hot on his tail, leaving Sonia as the odd one out. Weird. Usually, she seemed like the type to come running to help others. Though it seemed like n odd time to do so, Hajime wondered where she might have gone. The three struggled to peer into the room, none of them having the sense of mind to make Mikan get out of the doorway.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>And then… Hajime’s worst fear was confirmed.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em> Bing bong bing bong! </em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em> “A body has been discovered!” </em>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>this is left ambiguous on purpose lol. did kazuichi kill sonia? did sonia kill kazuichi? is kazuichi even the one who's dead? idk lmao im not writing a sequel.................. unless?</p></blockquote></div></div>
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